‘Red O’
As a city with only 2.3% of its population claiming Hispanic or Latino as its ancestry, Pittsburgh isn’t exactly a hub of south-of-the-border cuisine. Yet, I had heard rumors of a delicious upscale Mexican restaurant called Verde in an area of town called Garfield and headed there one night when my momma took me out to dinner. After all, upscale as a student is typically only in the lexicon when parents are around.
Rick Bayless is apparently a pretty big deal, and not just because he got his PhD at the University of Michigan. No, he is actually a famous chef who specializes in Mexican food. Now, when I headed off to dinner at Red O, I was entirely unaware of both the existence of man named Rick Bayless and the fact the Red O’s kitchen was run by him that he was Red O’s consulting chef. Clearly this was not going to be an everyday ordinary Mexican meal. The exterior had a design reminiscent of the Bird’s Nest in Beijing. The interior wasn’t too shabby either, but this style came at a price. One of our party was sporting khaki shorts and was nearly denied entry, despite everyone else in the restaurant wearing shorts. This almost knocked the place down a notch to me, but I was willing to forgive if they could deliver some amazing food.